Cruzes

our christmas present to the cruze parents this year was that we are watching their kids today, overnight, and part of tomorrow. fun fun fun! i have already claimed afton as my own as we spent some quality time exploring our house and playing the piano. i have the cutest videos ever! she is such a cutie!

christmas

basic overview.... FANTASTIC CHRISTMAS!!!!! not only did i totally redo my room, and get an enV 3, i got tons of clothes previously picked out, 70 dollars to itunes, 40 to AE, 7 pairs of cool looking socks, blue and green in dif designs, a new basketball, and lots of other stuff. could christmas get much better? i submit that it cannot :) oh yea, me, trey, hannah b, and lizzy allo get to go see brian regan.

WOW

i definatly just met Kara Lawson at the gym. thankjfully, i recognized her when i saw her and was able to go up and meet her and talk to her for literally 5 minutes. she gave me some great advice, and talked to me about what it takes to play in college and beyond. a few kara facts..... she has played in the pros for 6 years after a very successful career at UT. in the pros, she plays for the Sacremento Monarchs. her three point % is 0.4, which is really good. really really good. free throws, she doesnt miss. just under 9 of 10. a few rebounds, steals, and assists per game. an occasional block, almost no turnovers. 12 points. all star. and she talked to me, knows my name, wished me good luck, said shed be waiting to hear my name in a few years. in the entire NBA, she ranks 17 and 16 in assist to turnover ratio and three pointers, respectively. 35 minutes out of 40 against pheonix. GET SOME!!! oh yea, and you all know about how 20 was my dads number. its treys. Karas number, 20.

At Ut, which i care about, she had 15 points, 4.5 assists per game. 46% from 3 point. her freshman year she made the game winning shot against the US national team. she made about 6 of these last second shots in her time at Ut.

thats right :)

Farragut just beat West. Even without Katie. and our biggest post besides Katie is 5-11. GET SOME!!!!! i even got in in the first half for almost a quarter which is nice, and i hit 2 free throws at the end.

over

school is officially out for us high school goers, after a half day of finals yesterday and today. Gym.... speaks for itself. Business Principals, harder than expected. before my class took the test, the highest grade was an 87. great. i only needed a 77 to keep my A, but.... well, Savannah Lucas and i got 93's, highest in out class. i am fairly confident i did well enough on the final to get an A in Honors English, we havnot gotten the grades back yet, but algebra is gonna be close. right now i round up to a 93. but, the final was fairly esy and worth 20 % of out grade.

bball is going great, we are #1 in out district. (9-1). Tomorrow we play West, who is really good. sadly, our Freshman star on both JV and Varsity will not be playing. she is 6-1 or 2, plays alot like Hayley Newby. She will be better than hayley in a few years. because, she can shoot. in one scrimmage, she hit 8 threes. wow. wow. wow. wow. but, she is clumsy with those big feet of hers and she tore a ligamant in her toe. yes, her toe. she will be out for a little while, possibly the games monday and tuesday as well.

as for me, i play anywhere from 6-14 minutes in our 32 minute games (8 minute quarters).

as far as bball is concerned.... officially i made varsity and JV, i will pretty much just dress out for varsity, if that even lasts. but i should get lots of time on JV, so i would rather be on JV any way. about to leave for a 6 AM practice, gotta be there really early to get all my stuff. this afternoon there is a bonfire at Jess's.

wow, that was..... team building. or nasty. whichever you prefer.

all freshman clean a toilet and mine had a cocroach in it. enough said. then we spent almost 2 hours scrubbing a mopping the bleachers and the lockers free of mold dust and unknown objects.

bball tryouts monday and tuesday. they might not have a freshman team, bearden didnt. if not, im the long shot to make it..... again. til then, ive had strength and conditioning every morning at 6:45, be there at 6:30. pancake breakfast and team room cleanup today, so i cant do race for the cure. once more, hes implying that we all already made the team. but ive seen that one before.

i did fine on the dreaded "sonja run", finishing in the middle of the pack. i found out that as ong as you finihs within the time limit, he couldnt care less about how you do. it is just a test to see if you have the will power to finish in time. i finished with 6 minutes to spare. as far as sprints, i am not a fast person. i was running between 6.30 and 6.78's about, for a 40. of course, this is 10 minutes after "the run". but, i was right in the middle of the pack for this as well. brooke rhodes got a 5.8, but she has super human speed. the slowest person was consistently in the 7's. that is all we did today, and we got out about 30 minutes early. tonight we scrimmage, and then the first 2 sessions out of 6 are done!

tryouts

tryouts start in 1 hour and 4 minutes. i am nervous as all get out. wish me luck.

alright, heres the low down on whats been going on lately. soccer camp...really hard, rewarding, fun, bonding. i am still majorly sore form it. im sure anyone reading this blog will talk to me soon, or has talked to me, so i can give moe detail in person, i dont have time to write it all out now.

tryouts are monday tuesday and wednesday, 9-12 and 5:30-8:30. if i make the team, starting on thursdays we will have 2 a days, taking the place of tryouts, same place and time. here is a copy of an email we got about it, i think it will sum it all up

Soccer tryouts will begin on Monday July 27th at 9am with a light run (~4+ miles). For Monday morning’s session all players will meet at our field by the Intermediate School. Do not be late!!!!! Anyone showing up late will penalize the entire team by causing everyone to do additional running at the end of each practice. The morning session will end at approximately noon. The evening session will start at 5:30pm and will end around 8:30pm. There will be a morning and evening session on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with try-outs concluding on Wednesday and Coach Lindsay will name the players that have made the team. All players trying out will be required to be at every tryout session.

Please remember to bring water to each session.

Expectations for those who are selected for the team:
Practices prior to school starting will normally be held M-F Times TBD at our field by the Intermediate School.
Practices after school starts will normally be held M-F 4pm -6:15pm at our field by the Intermediate School.
Every player is expected to be a every practice unless other arrangements have been made with Coach Lindsay. For those players that violate this rule there will be a one game suspension for the 1st offense and the will be removed from the team for a 2nd offense. If you fell you will be unable to commit to this then you may not want to try out.
Uniforms will be handed out on Thursday July 30th.
Team picture will be on Friday July 31st. Location and Time TBD.


starting monday night, i will be staying ta the langfords.


more info later

soccer camp

i will be away at maryville college forteam camp for farraagut.... and no, i do not know if i have made the team yet...tryouts are right after team camp. anyways, until friday, i will not blog or be very reachable.

sum it all up...

so, lately i have been.....



seeing harry Potter at 12:30
trying to limit TV and reading to allow my eye to heal
visiting the doctor
not eating or drinking before that visit
watching soccer games
skipping soccer practices
getting wierd stares
going to the gym
going to the poolk
not getting in the pool
texting people
visiting Koa
playing guitar
not playing piano
wearing a pirate patch
listening to music
going to young womens parties
getting to know hannahs cousins...again
having no depth perception
eating ice cream
having a broken phone that only gets half my incoming texts
going to church
hanging out with the family
reading other peoples blogs but being to lazy to update mine
thinking about how i am going to die at team camp (14 hours a day, 8:30-10:45)
skipping swim practice


hmmm....if i think of more, i will let you know :)

okay.... ahvent logged in forever. i dont have much time though, so im just gonna blog about my tramatic incident a girls camp.

so, friday night was the last night of camp. as is tradition, we were having a glow stick rave in the 4th year cabin. for my friends of different churches, 12 year olds are 1st years, 13 =2nd, and so on up to 4=15. then, YCLs (youth camp leaders, pronounced yucal) are between 16-18. it was me, hannah B, Hannah G, (3) lizzy, Cierra, and someone i did nto know (4) Kelsey Kah (2) Ginger, Emma, Brittany (YCL). we were just getting started, and every one had went to change. me, hannah, hannah, kelsey and lizzy were the first ones back, so we just got started rightr then.

what you do is you get a bunch of glowsticks and a pocket knife. you cut the glow sticks in half and splatter the glowey stuff inside all over yourself, each other, and the walls and night when the lights are off.i was standing near the back, cutting open another glowstick, when someone tried to spray a girl standing near me and missed. i got a ton of the chemicals that make it glow in both eyes, and some glass in the left.

at first, i thought it was just burning and stinging from the stuff in my eyes, but after 15 minutes i was still in a lot of pain, i couldnt open my left eye at all, and it was getting worse. right about then all the older girls ran in, and in a matter of seconds ahd the game plan. 3 people were sent out, to get the nurse, the leaders, and the rest of the YCLs. Lizzy and Ginger and Emma stayed with me and then brought me to the bathrooms. the leaders met us there, and then it got really bad.

i had to lean back, and one of the leaders pryed my eye open and help it there while the nurse poured saline in it. i was just about breaking Emmas hand i was squeezing it so hard. it was all i could do not to scream and cry, the pain was unbearable. after a few tries at this, they went to water. that burned a lot less, but i just about died when i opened my eye. once more, poor lizzy, janelle, and emma!!! we continued this torture for about 45 minutes, and they realized it was serious and they could do no more. the adults went to go get the men, leaving the YCLs in charge of keeping me company. i was hsaking and i couldnt breath right, and i was soaked from all the water, but al those girls and lizzy still just held me tight. still....worse pain than i had ever felt. brother Dunn and Orme came in at that point, and gave me a priesthood blessing. then, the adults left again to call my parents and get the car. emma basically carried me to the car. we were going to the ER. Lizzy came with me, although i wish janelle emma and ginger could have all come too. we got i a car with about 6 adults and sped out of there, it was about a 40 minute drive i would say, and i was really hurting. once more, all i could do not to cry.

we got to the ER around 2:15. i got hurt around 1. the doctors asked me a hundred stupid questions like what is your social security number, or who is your doctor and all that stuff, and finally got me in to see a doctor.

first, we did the eye chart. i could not see the big E with my left eye even when i held it open and stared. then, we sat in a room for about 20 minutes. 2 doctors came in, both of them large and tough looking. i knew ti was about to get ugly. one held my eye open while the other held a blacklight over it and used a quetip to scrape out all the chemicals. then, they sprayed each eye with a full bottle of salene. still couldnt close my eye. more quetip. water. drops that burned like nothing else. more salene. huge piece of flass came out. more drops, about 7 each eye. burning. one last water spray. pain medicine. a gel that i have to cover my eye with. perscriptions for both as welll as another type of drops. gel kills you eye and blurs vision. then, they put in numbing drops which burned like nothing else for like 5-10 minutes before they worked.

Diagnosis.... large chunk of glass, dangerous chemicals, scratch across cornea.

i left, getting back to my cabin around 4. couldnt sleep because it hurt so bad. breakfast at 7. after everyone kept coming up and telling me how scared they were, and how like half of them waited for me to come back. injury could have been alot worse.

wow. not a fun night. if you were one who helped me through that pain, thank you so much!!!!!

lots of stuff....

well, i havent blogged in a while so i will try to fit it all in as few posts as possible. here goes!



for a few days, i worked for my dad filing bancrupcies. very hard at first, but i got the hang of it. not a lot of people know how to do it. i got $40 per that i did, and i made about $330 in just a few days. the most i made in one day was $120, but i worked about 10 hours total that day. i also went into a meeting with my dad, trying to convince someone to do their bancrupcy with us, and court, and i met with one of "my" clients to have them finalize, pay, and sign the papers so we could file it.



i bought my new 32 Gig Itouch straight after work on Thursday. i absolutely adore it, even though it was $400 and $450 with tax. ouch. at walmart it was 30 bucks cheaper, but they were out. so, i went to the apple store. i still owe my dad over a hundred, but that shoudlnt be a problem.



on thursday we also had a swim meet. I won the IM, and our Medley relay team got second. i got second in breast, it wasnt even close! and we got second in the Free Relay. however, i lead off, and we ahd the lead when i got out of the pool, so that makes me feel better.

friday, i went to see the 2nd transformers with Brooke, Kelli, Dustin, Kristen, Tyler, Trey, and Scott. after that, i went home and hung out with Koa, and ended up sleeping over with brooke. we ahd fun doing fireworks, watching Inkheart with Dustin, and just hanging out. today i mostly just hung out at home, and cleaned ect. in preperation for the beach with langfords.

i have an eye infection, so it is pretty ahrd for me to go outside. my eyes are so sensitive that i have to keep lights off and blinds closed to be comfortable. but then it still hurts. dad picked up drops for me, and they ahve helped alot.

tomorrow after church i am leaving with langfords so i wont be blogging for a while.

Koa

just a little update on Koa....

he is the cutest dog in the world,, the smartest, and the best behaved! it seems like all he wants is for you to be happy with him! he is following commands like sit, down, and come to some extent, and he hasnt even been trained yet! he is also really good about not getting into the house. to get outside, he has to go through the house, so sometimes he goes in when you open the door, thinking its time to go outside, but if you just say Koa, he will come right back. also, if you say "Koa, you stay right here, okay" he will sit where he is to show he is going to stay there until you get back.

size wise, he has already grown alot. when we both sit down on the ground, i am staring between his nack and mouth.

for fathers day, my grandparents got my dad a bunch of stuff for Koa. he got a brush, a frisbee with holes for teeth so he can carry it, a tick collar, a new food/water bowl, and some treats. we also just ordered his outdoor dog house. but, we have decided not to leave him outside for the night alone until he is bigger, in case a stray comes over. he is just to nice for his own good!!! an example....

nathaniel has 2 teacups and a golden at his dads house, and today he brought one of the teacups with him into town. he brough gracie, who is a few months older than me, old and frail, and sweet as anything. he was walking back into the house, and she started barking up a storm, trying to get at him while we wree trying to seperate the poor puppy from this terrible old fiend. lol. he was scared to death, and started whing after a while. we compared her to the mean old lady who lives down the street and scares all of the poor inocent kids. but no worries, she wouldnt hurt a fly. i dont know what got into her, she is used to other dogs being around.... oh well!

oh ya.....

did i mention....


we just started our 2 week dead peroid for soccer which is required by TSSAA for all high school sports in tennessee?!?! its kind of a big deal, i can have a life of my own for two weeks,

while working out on my own.....
trying to run every night.....
improving my speed and agility.....
working and chips and headers......
beconing the toughest player there is, and having the most heart.....
doing everything coach tells me.....




what kind of a dead period is this?

recent fun

so, friday morning bright and early, we all headed up to atlanta for a little family trip. when we got there, we went straight to the 6 flags water park, called white water, with out stopping to even check into our hotel. this ws around 10:30 - 11:00. we then did many rides together, and some seperate, including the big family ride twice in a row, the 90 foot drop almost straight down that lasts about 3 seconds from start to finish (trey and dad) and no joke, it really does. and its a water slide. ahhh!!!!! the bohamian bobsled, the tidal wave, the tornado, the river rapids, caribean plunge, and many others. the best things were, 1. everyone was big enough and brave enough to do most rides. 2. you wait to get your tube at the bottom of the ride from someone coming off, then the line at the top of the actual ride is about 5 minutes or less. at the bottom, you can see the 50 % of people wipe who wipe out do so while laughing, and hoping that you will not.

after about 5 hours, we headed to the car, and went bakc to the hotel and dinner. mom and dad had to be at dinner before there "broadway" at 5:30, so they left pretty early. trey and i babysat the triplets in the 2 hotel rooms we had, until mom and dad got back.... around 11, or midnight.

the next morning we went home. soon after arriving home, syd, dad and I went to see Koa, and found Granny was over too. (my great grandmother) after hanging out with Koa and talking to granny, we headed for home. mom and i premade the cookie dough for dessert on fathers day, as well as the Crepes for his breadfast in bed bright and early. then, we headed down to the pool, and dad helped me with both jumping headers and diving headers. he wanted to try it out, but it was pretlty much a failure. then, i headed back into the pool area, and helped all the kids with there strokes. i got syd doing real fly, corrected all her IM turns, and showed her a few tricks for back. i think all in all we tood off a good 5-7 seconds off ther time, maybe more if she can remember it all! very succesful day.

swim meet

we had a swim meet against northside Y on monday. i won the IM with a time of 3:10 in a meter pool, which is roughly a 2:53 in a yard pool. that kills my old PR, of about a 3:08!! sadly, they DQed me. it was for "recovering with my hands in the water" i think that means still having my head above water after breathing (on my fly) while my hands have hit the water and i have started my pull. at least, that is how Ben explained it. i still dont get it. it doesnt give me an advantage to do that, and the reace wasnt close, so why does it matter? oh well. i deserved to be dQ'ed, i messed up my back to breast turn...they just didnt see it.

breastroke i got 2nd, which i was pretty dissapointed in. i swam a 43, which translates into about a 39. that is a PR for me, but i still ahve a long way to go. dustin swims it in a 33.... but he dominates the 15-18 boys division with that time.

i swam in the 15-18 girls division for the medley relay. i did the breast leg. they combined us with the boys for 15-18, and another girls team or two. we got second, but we got creamed. by the time i got in the pool (the order is back, breast, fly, free) we were about 10 lengths behind. i cut it to about 7 during the breastroke, and beanne (our flyer) to about 5-6. it was a disappointing loss, but they just had a dominent backstoker, and we ahd an average one. it wasnt ever really a race.

we also got 2nd in the free relay. i led off, and had us in first by about 1/2 to one lenght, but we soon lost it. we ended up a good distance behind the first place team, but we also seperated ourselves from our other competitors.

the main problem was that that pool was amazingly shallow on one end, and about 10 feet on the other. so, you were almost scared to do a flip turn. i did them inb my iM, but my back almost hit the bottom, so i didnt in the free relay. last time we went there, Gabe scraped up his whole back doing a flip turn. it was really bad.

my scheduale

first semester....

1. gym ugh. of course i got it first, so i hav eto be sweaty all day!
2. business principals i have with janelle and savannah, should be fun
3. honors english trey barely squeked out an A... tough teacher. wish me luck
4. honors algebra...... with hannah, savannah and anna miller

this is during soccer and bball season. of course, i get my 2 hard classes when i have practice every day till at lest 7, or a game far away til really late.

2nd semester
1. honors biology easy peasy and i think with chealsey jordan
2. world history
3.family and consumer science home ec
4. computer apps w/ chealsey jordan

father daughter campout and more

so, thursday night i slept over with Koa on the screened in porch. my grandparents are gone (at the beach with syd) so i thought he might like some company. he, however, was determined to prove me wrong! when i got out the sleeping bag to lay down, he started chewing it! so, i decided that that was not an option. after several failed attempts to get him to quite it, i just broght t back inside and replaced it with some old towels to lay down on. he chewed these as well, but it didnt matter. it was really late, I think some time between 1 and 2, and he was still wide awake. he made sure i knew this by licking my face, trying to eat my hair, walking on me, and all the usual puppy antics. so, i decided to go inside for the night. then, i awoke sometime around 3 to a major storm. i couldnt just let my puppy sit out there on the sceened in porch afraid, so i went out there with him. he was calm, but scared. he really just wanted to know that i was there with him....he wasn't alone. so, i sat and layed there petting him and telling him what a good boy he was until he fell asleep. not sure exactly what time it was at, but i would imagine about 4:30. then, i went back inside, and slept til about 6:30, when i heard him whining to be let out. i figured i had might as well just stay up. so, all in all i got about no sleep that night, even though it was good bonding with Koa.

friday night was the father daughter campout. after the customary smores, and after breaking up the fights between Katie Becker (age 11) and Madeline Ebbert (age 8) over who got to sit in my lap, we all jumped on the trampoline, fished, canoed, and got ready for bed. we went in the tent to escape the hoards of bugs, and discovered a breeding ground for spiders and another unidentifiable bug. so, Kelli Phillips and i said goodbye, and headed for the bug free tramp. although everyone gave us a hard time at first, soon brooke joined us. then ashlee ebbert. then katie. and hannah g left. soon, it was pretty much just hannah b in the tent.

for a long time, it was Kelli and I just hanging out on the trampoline talking, and jumping, and laying around, and then jumping again to make the motion sensative light come back on. then brooke came, and we continued with an added scary story added every here and there, and a mad run through the woods in the dark. everyone else showed up while we were laying in the dark talking.

when we fell asleep, i was on the far left, with kelli next to me, then brooke, and ebbert. katy laid across all of our feet. by morning, we were all in a bunch in the center of the tramp. i cant tell you how many times i woke up on top of someone and had to mover over!!! it was unbeleivable!!!

a quick story....at a few points during the night, brooke woke up. one in particular woke pretty much everyone up. she heard some kind of bird or other animal doing its thing out in the woods, and angirly inquired of us all loudly, "WHO KEEPS TOOTING?!?!" "is it you allie? katy?" (she continues down the list) it was halarious!!

in the morning, we had pancakes, and jumped on the tramp and just hung out and talked. good times. oh yeah, and kelli got stung by a bee. poor kid.

fun stuff

on tuesday, i only had an afternoon soccer practice (which i skipped for the swim meet) the swim meet, and supposedly easy swim practice. right after swim practice, i got some swim girls together to go to Wasabi's. they were, Hannah Becker, Hannah Giacalone, Lizzy Gibson, Kelli Phillips, Rachel and Janelle Graves, Kelsey Kah, and Lauren Meek. it was cool to go, becuase it was just us, no parental supervision. at movies and stuff, that is normal, but not out to eat! it was relly odd to get the check, and pay, as well as tip. after that, some of the girls came back to my place. we played spoons with trey for a long time, (it was amazing!) then, when trey went to basketball, we just hung out. then, we went to see my puppy, and hung out a bit more. less than an hour later, we all saw each other again at the swim meet. we had to be there at 5, and we got home around 11. that is a lot of swimming!

more on the meet....

we got killed on all the IM's, so at first it was looking bleak. however, we soon found out that they just had a few superstars. like there 2 IM'ers in my age group! and the girl in the first leg of the free relay on the jewish teams A team (both teams have A and B teams). so, whenever i swam in those events, i was like "wow, whats wrong with me?!?!" but, i still had a convincing win in fly, and we pulled out the win in both relays.

you can not understand how intense this meet was. for almost every event (particularlly the IM's and relays which are worth the most points) every person there is screaming as loud as they can to their respective team. mormon...or jewish??? it was literally deafening at a few key points in the race. for example....

tyler's fly which he barely pulled out a first in
all relays
dustins breast and fly
breanne and leslie's fly and breast
i think my breast and IM and relays, but its hard to tell while you swim
jared's IM
sydneys IM
dustins IM all IMs
all meet long

i mean, ears ringing, voice cracking, jumping up and down, hoarseness, all out plea in your scream as loud as you can becuase you dont think that they understand how close it is.... when they do.

soccer

in more soccer news....

Monday, we had practice. we did the average, though torturous dribbling drills, and passing as well. then, our first real assignment was to get in two groups. someone would take corners into the goal, and someone had to get a head on it. if no one did, we all ran a lap. we did this for a while, then changed it up a bit. we all huddled together while our server punted it as high as they could. someone would get under it and head it. if no one did, we all ran a lap. and these punts were not coming right to us. you had to run, jump, dive, push, and shove to get at it. and trust me, you didn't want to get at it. we have the hardest balls ever, and when it comes down at you from 50 yards up, or is kicked as hard as possible in the general direction of your head, it will not feel good. whenever we had to run, you could see everyone holding their heads.... the bouncing made the throbbing get worse.

then, we did chipping. our reward for doing it correctly is that we don't hit our teammate in the head! we did it by getting in groups of 3. your group of 3 gets in a line about 15 yards apart. the person in the middle will role it to someone on the outside, and then they chip it to the other side, over the middle persons head. then, the other person returns it. don't be in the middle.... coach watches to make sure you don't shy away from getting hit. it does not feel good. and don't mess up either... i was in a group with some upper class man, and they will yell at you if you mess up. especially if it means they have to run!!!

then, the last hard thing we did was you got in pairs (once again an upper class man chose me) and kicked the ball as hard as you could at each other. they trap it, and do it back. any height, and it didn't always go right to you. this is so you get used to handling bad passes, and stopping clears and goal kicks, and converting.

a weird thing we did was we would dribble around, and coach would blow the whistle. when he did, about every 15 seconds, you had to stop and so a somersault. then get to your ball and start dribbling again. this worked your starts, made you look like an idiot so he could insult you, and getting back to the ball fast.

thankfully, we got to skip Tuesday for swimming, i heard we did diving headers again!!!

today at weights, we changed ti up a bit. well, we added more stuff at least..... after all of our average speed stuff, we got out these sleds that had 50 pounds attached to them. who knows how much the sleds weighed.... anyway, we had to attach them to our waists and sprint. it was sooo hard! after that, we got with partners, and had to push them in it! i had Hannah, and she is about 130 pounds, plus about 25 i would say from the metal sled!!!! it was a major workout!!! we didn't really do anything else new though.

swim meet

last night, we had our first swim meet. it was against the jewish community center, and we bet them 380-304. i got first in the medley relay (team A of heat 1, i swam breast) as wel as the free relay (team A of heat 1 as well. i led off) and the 50 breast. i got 4th in the IM. ugh.... not a good race. in both the IM and the medley relay, my goggles fell off. in the IM, i had to slow down/stop at walls, ect. in my attempt to fix my goggles. becuase, you cant swim a 200 without goggles when you have contacts in! in the medley, i just finished pulling them all the way off. in both the relays, Gabby helped to pull out the win, and in the free, hannah held the lead to barely pull out another win. we all celebrated afterwards for quite awhile, pushing in both of our coahces in the process!!!

swimming

guess what events i got stuck with in our swim meet? ..... again.... 200 IM, 50 breast, 50 fly (most likely), medley relay (swimming fly or breast) and of coarse free relay. fun fun!!! i am excited about it all except for the 200 IM, but what can you do. thankfully this year, i am not the only one swimming it from our team. Hannah Becker is too. hopefully, we will have no repeats of last year when i got stuck swimming with Tyler and Cory because they combined age groups to save time. ie... a barely 13 year old girl against 2 sixteen year old stud swimmers. oddly enough, i set my pr that day. i guess competition helps me. what am i talking about, i already new that!!!

this week

this week, my FHS soccer practices are monday, tuesday and thursday from 6:30 to 8:30. i have soccer workouts on monday wednesday and fridays straight after swimming which is every day. to make it worse, i have a swim meet on tuesday, starting at 6 so we have to be there at 5. that means i will have to skip soccer, but if the next meet and practice are at the same time, i will have to go with soccer.

in other soccer news, the days finally got changed so they are not on wednesday nights anymore! i already had to skip church once, and was going to have to for the next 2 weeks (1 camp certification, 1 joint activity with boys). this was not going to be fun, i am pretty pumped!

in other church and soccer news, i am not going to be going to EFY....... again. this time for sure. it is just too hard to plan it around soccer, swim meets, (which we achieved) and then find plane tickets for under 700 bucks when you include fees for changing it. so, it is once more a no go. so sad....

and finally, we are still the wimpiest bunch of worthless ground slugs coach lindsey has ever seen. he reminds us of that frequently, as well as some players that they are worthless groundslugs for messing up a speed drill, ect pretty regularly. aahhh.... i love how laid back high school is! hahahaha

water park

today, i sone how weasled out of both swim team and soccer workouts to go to an indoor waterpark with the langfords, emma, mom, dad, trey, and syd. we had a blast, and there are only very short lines there. i watched people do the flow rider for quite a while (i was too sore), and did the storm chaser. its a ton scarier backwards, you feel like you are about to elip over backwards, and the person opposite you is about to fall onto you. we did the wave pool and the lazy river, played bball outside where i donimated carter in horse, and played with claire on the squishey, wiggley snake that could fit like 10 people sitting on it in the pool. we did the tube rides of course, and the hot tub, and all the average stuff. good times. after that, i went straight to see Koa. i stayed for about three and a half hours, he is becoming really attached to me. also, he was scared of the storm that came through. he was really good though, just laying at my feet with his sad puppy face, occasionally whining or trying to jump up in my lap like he does. i just sat and petted him til it blew over. he also chewed up another bed, i think he is just too young. he chews everything, my hair, nose, ears, and shoes, clothes, towels, rugs, table and chair legs, grass, trees, anything he can get his mouth around. including cups and food bowls. silly dog!! but i love him!!!!!

killer workouts

i think coach lindsey just wants all the freshman dead. for two hours at practice, do you know what we did? first, we ran. then, we did a sprinting dribbling drill. if you werent fast enough, you whole group had to do it again. and again. and again. and only the freshman messed up becuase we are not used to raking backwards left footed, believe it or not. i mean, we dont even have experiance in regular dribbling backwards....who does that in a game situation??? so, after that we practiced headers and diving headers for a while in groups. then, he put us to the test in mutiple ways. exhibit A, get in groups of 3. one person get in groups on three. one person gets on hands and knees. one person dives over them and heads the ball. the other throws it. dont be on the bottom. they land on you. they dont dive far enough and they end up clocking you upside the head. not enjoyable. Exhibit B, get in 2 groups. pick your starting goalie and your server. servers for each team get on either side of the goal, with their teammates diagonally across from them, around the outer box. person 1. will run across the goal towards the box, . when they are about 10 yards away from the gal and centered, the server serves them the ball, and they dive for it, heading it towards the goal. hopefully, the goalie does not save it. then, person 1. gets in the goal, as the other tam does the same thing, in the opposite direction. repeat. loser does leg lifts. painful, physically (DIVING headers. you hit the ground hard) and mentally. the seniors give you a terrible time. then, he decided we werent tough enough again. we got in a line, and one at a time, we would sprint towards the goal while he threw balls at us. head, shoulders, abs, he had no target. you trap each ball and convert it without hesitating. you have a tendancy to hesitate a little when you see him about to chuck a ball at you that you kinow will knock your breath away.

soccer is so crazy, i sure hope it is worth it! i already have my share of horror stories, coach is trying to scare people off by making it really hard becuase we have os many trying out. and he says the freshman are the wimpiest group of girls he has ever seen. so not true!

my baby and more

i went back over to the Sexton's and visited my little Koa some more. man oh man, does he like those horses! after that, i came home (naturally) just in time to meet hannah. she had a rose, a card, and an oreo ice cream cake. did i mention, earlier today, while i was still at sexton's, hannah Giacalone came over with a cake and a card? and mom made a cake.... i had plenty to eat!

my little baby is so cute! he is calm in the aspect that he doesnt jump all over you, but if i sit down, he will try to get in my lap! and, if i lay dawn, he snuggles up next to me with his head in the crook of my arm or on my stomach!!! too cute!!! he can jun and jog and play though for quite some time, and jumps all over any bugs he sees! he is so brave.... that is how the man who sold him to us described him, brave and fearless! that is what his name means as well, oddly enough! he was trying to get at the horses, but thankfully he has an electric fence! speaking of which, tomorrow before swimming i get to go help train him to not go over it, and soon we start reagular obediance training as well! he is so cute and perfect, i still can not believe he is all mine!!!!

bday

he knows his mommy!!!

isnt he a handsome dog?

taking a run already???

me and my puppy

I GOT A GERMAN SHEPHERD!!!! it is a boy, about 3 months, brown, with a slightly darker saddle looking patch on top. he is calm, but really brave, and can be playful. only problem, i have no idea what to name him!!! look at my side bar and please vote, or comment for me! i already spent a good 3 hours just hanging out with him! since we do not have a big yard at all, and my brother is allergic to dogs, he will stay at grandmother's house, who has 5 acres for him to run around on. My parents put in an invisible fence to keep him safe. now that trey can drive, i have a driver to get me over there any time i want!

tournament

today, i played in my last game ever as a viper!!!!

in the first game, we lost 2-1. that was on friday, at 7:15. we should have won, the reffing was terrible. on one of their goals, they tripped our goalie, kicked it out of her hands, and scored. illeagal times 100! on the other one, the ref called a corner when it was obviously a goal kick. they scored off a set play from there. that team was really physical too, and we all took a few good hits. my hardest was probably getting sandwiched between there stopper and defending mid. ouch. i scored our only goal, off a beautiful shot by lauren grillo. the girls got skillz. she missed just to the outside of the far post, and i managed to get there in the nick of time to finish for her.

in our game today, the team had to forfeit becuase of illegeal players. if not, we would have lost. we only had 11 in both games, and 2 with injuries. a pulled hammy and a bad ankle. the ankle girl couldnt run, so we had to stick her in goal. she wasnt a goalie. lauren had our only goal off a breakaway. she beat a few girls, and finished with a chip shot over the rushing goalie. upper 90. that was my last game ever as a viper, and it was slightly disapointing. only 15 minutes at forward, and i had one cross that should have been finished, no shots. then, a half at mid. mostly defensive. the rest i played at left D.

this game felt almost like high school. beautiful passes, huge legs on girls, that could knock you head off, reffs strict about offsides, and loose about elbows, jursey pulling, pushing, lide tackling from behind, the works. sadly, the ref didnt like me too much again. a girl twice my size started pushing me around, and pulling my shorts, trying to get the ball. the whole time, their players had beat us up, and we had gotten no calls. so, i fought back. i wasnt gonna let her do that to me! the ref came over, and by that time we were both on the ground, in pain, and geting up as fast as we could to do it again. he started yelling, not at her (she flagrently pushed me first) but at me! he said, "hey, you look like your on a UFC fight show! if you dont knock it off now, im gonna card you and send you to the bench! now, you done, or should i just card you up now?" i said i would stop, and he gave us a drop ball, becuase he knew as well as me that she started it. she got to it first, and hit me in the stomach pretty had. i recovered, and cleared it. still though, i have a bad opinion of that ref, although i am suprised he didnt card me then and there!

my summer's story

here is the story of my summer.... swim. workout. lay exhausted for a few hours and carb load. go to an amazingly physical soccer practice (or two later on) and get pushed, shoved, grabbed and kicked. run for punishment bacuase someone was late. get lined up in the goal while the upper classman have about 10 minutes to try and knock our heads off. if you duck, or dont head it, get screamed at. get bruises, and feel amazingly sore. get called freshman, or freshey in a nasty tone by people who happen to be older than you when they tell you to pick up their trash, put the goals up or down, carry the ball or penny bag, or even their soccer bag. after just one week, i already have alot of imsight into my new life. even people that i was friends with in the past now just order me around, and make fun of us. oh well, hopefully it will wear off soon! until then..... ugh.

btw, i will make a post on monday or wednesday saying exactly what we did at workouts and practice, ect. just so you can feel my pain. and try doing it all a few times a week and seeing how you feel!

bday

since i was booked all week, and have a tournament this weekend, we celebrated my birthday with the fam on memorial day. we had langfors, cruzes, us, grammy and grandpa on both sides, and the sextons. as you can tell, it was tons of fun! we went to a pancake breakfast/memorial day service thingey first. vetrens spoke, and after we ate. then, we set up the slip and slide... around 11. at about 2 we stopped for a late lunch cookout style. then, we got back on the slip and slide til probably 5:30 or 6! mixed in there somewhere is presents and cake for me! many thanks to all! after that, we went to langfords lake property and did smores. it started storming, so we rushed to cruzes. around 9:30 or 10, i went to get my physical done by becker, and he brought me home so i could get some sleep before the big day.

as you can tell by the pics, we had tons of fun! and the commentary for each.... 1. lydia had a thing for holding the hose.... but sometimes she forgot about holding it on the slide!

2. me carter and jared all sliding. the fun part was surfing down.... but sliding worked too.

3. we also would all go in a row and try to hold each others ankles. slightly painful, but fun! just dont let trey go last!!!

4. we had races.... and carter got a head start! i think we were about to start surfing down and see who could go the farthest.

5. this was a very fun game.... someone would slide down as fast as they could, and someone would sit in the middle of the slide waiting. the slider would grab the sitter on the way down, and sling them in front of them.

and look at those arms.... weights are paying off! haha

ouch

man..... farraguts workouts sure are intense! i didn't even have practice yesterday, it was reschedualed for today, 4:30 - 6:30. the weights and swimming alone were enough to throw my body out of wack! and the trip to the pool with friends..... but of course, i'm not sure just how sore i really am, becuase i am covered in little bruises and scrapes from the slip and slide! :)

so today, trey is supposedly driving me to swimming at 9:30 - 11:00. i will leave early for strength and conditioning, and then hang out till practice.

to touch a little on what kind of stuff we did at strength and conditioning, bench press with dumbbells, pull-ups on the ropes, push-up plusses, and more. we also did about 30 minutes of speed drills on the ladders, and jump ropeing. right after that, we did lunges clutching weights to our chests. then, we did the things where you crouch down with your hands and butt touching the floor, then jump as high as you can. and repeat about 10 jor 12 times. then, more lunges. more jumps. then, squats. then, laps around the huge football weight room doing walking lunges. i know we did tons more after that, but i was kind of in the zone, so i dont really remember.... as for abs, we did bicycles, tons of crunches, lifting our feet up straight and doing a crunch to reach them, cross crunches, i could go on. we have to do this tuesday wednesday thursday of this week, though normally the tuesday will be monday. fun, fun, fun!

all good

wow, crazy day! around 2, or 2:30, not exactly sure when, mom called me and trey downstairs, to tell us Lori was in an accident, they thought she was okay, but they were going down to make sure. Scott was already at the hospital with lydia because she has been having breathing problems. she has been hospitalized since yesterday around noon. so, he could not go to get her. in the end, my parents discovered that she was fine, and traded "posts" with Scott so he could go home with lori. they are still there, but should be home shortly. i am glad it all turned out okay.... that could have been really bad!

btw, Lydia is there 2nd youngest child. she is what, 2, maybe 2 and a half ? but she seems much older! in picture, which is the day of our make-up for the make-up easter egg hunt at Grammy's, she is bottom middle. in the other one, she is kissing Grandpa Barber

correction

good news! CC starts june 8th, i was looking at track info! it is monday wednesday friday mornings 7:30 to 9, so i could go before swimming, and get a ride. that will be hard, run 4 miles or so, swim for an hour and a half, then go lift weights and undoubtedly have to run afterwards, long distance or sprints! oh well!

crazy

wow, i just found out my schedule for soccer for the the next week or so. at farragut, apparently they take it a week at a time. monday, is my day off. i have a pancake breakfast, and soccer practice for the elite tournament .

tuesday, i have swimming from 9:45 to 11, however, i will be there for the trips by about 8:30. i will leave a few minutes early so that i can be at strength and conditioning by 11. it will probably end between 12:30 and 1. i would imagine that after that we would do something for lunch a a team or class. then, i am free until 5, when i have a practice at the practice feild. any one know which feild that is? i dont! i also dont know how long practice is, but i would guess 7:30 or 8 is when it would end. idk how that is going to work, because i think that track/cc practice (recommended by coach) is from 6:30 to 8. hmm.... maybe i misunderstood the starting date, and next week practice times will change....i want to run if possible throughout the day if i did, and probably take a nap! haha. sadly, i heard from courtney isom (who has friends on the team) that yes indeed, as we get closer to tryouts, and past tryouts, we will have 2 a days that last up to 3 hours. fun.

the same on wednesday, but with no track/cc workouts. on thursday, it is possible that i will have track/cc again, as well as elite practice. i will have to figure something out, because i have alot of confliction with my schedule. friday i should not have wieghts or cc/track, surely meaning longer practice. or scrimmage. and a good opportunity to run. joy. saturday i might have a track/cc meet from 8-1, unless this stuff starts next week, which is very possible. i am crossing my fingers. i know that the intensity of high school workouts are extreme. i was shell shocked with the first stuff.... i will need time for my body to adjust!!!!

besides that, saturday is the day before my birthday, so i will probably do something, like dinner. sunday, of course, is my day off, as my mormon friends know. i also have to find out when basketball stuff is going on. dad is looking in to that. i believe trey had it most every morning.... and if i am doing CC, that may be starting.... but right now i am starting to have more doubts, mostly because of over exherting myself! jk, that could nver happen!

man, i dont know what i am going to do with so many of these high level workouts! they are a new level, compared to what i am used to! i am going to have no life, i will be so tired!

summer

its finally summer!!!!! until tuesday, i get to just relax, be lazy, run, and go to soccer practices. then, starting tuesday, i also have swim practices. oh joy!!! also on tuesday, farragut high school workouts/scrimmages/practices start for the summer. not sure when strength and conditioning for coach Pate start, or the possible Knoxville track and CC starts. but, at least i get a few days!

as for EFY, i am hopefully going the last week in june, which is a dead period. no promises, but tis worth a shot! tthe next two weeks after that would be oak island and then Girls camp.

road block

i finally passed a major block i was having, by a longshot. i could not run the 4 miles without stopping...not that i had really tried. i finally just did it, and it was not bad at all. if it hadnt been so dark, i would have done another mile, at least. i am very happy about this, because i had been getting kind of lazy about my running. now, i know that i am in good shape for "the run". better than numerous other fresheys i know that cant even run 1.5 miles. feeling pretty good about soccer, but i better get my shot back before tryouts!

choices

im probably not going to EFY..... again. i have soccer that week, and i am already missing 2 weeks of stuff for girls camp and oak island. 3 weeks is just too much to miss over one summer..... it could jepordize my chances of making the team. at the same time, i want to go really badly. of course, i can go next year, and even be in a group with a friend.... i have to decide what i am doing by thursday night and i only found out wednesday night! any advice?

EFY

i am going to EFY! its at BYU, and i leave on my b-day! for the family out west, mom is going to be asking you soon about me staying with you for 2 days afterwards... i would only miss a saturday work out or two... none on sunday! i am soooooo excited!!!!!!! see you all soon!

so sad....

today...well, yesterday... was our last practice with Allie Davis. shes moving to Alabama, leaving right after school on Thursday. it was kind of funny though, because all of her soccer clothes were packed. she came in jeans, a neon yellow shirt, and converse. hey, at least it wasnt skinny jeans! but any way, that is so her.... well, we will all miss her a ton, both on and off the feild. thankfully for the rest of the team, she will be going to the big elite tournament in June. she is gonna come up here, and it sounds like them and some other girls are all driving up. sadly, i will not be there. i see her on the bus, but after Thursday moning, its goodbye Davis! anyway, we will all miss her tons; its always hard to move, but she will do great!

bye davis, i love you!

the weekend

on friday, we had some interesting stuff happen. first, there was the random weapon shearch. then, we got lectured by the crying Mrs. Rehder for about an hour, counting the time we had to write apology letters, and then we headed off to feild day. i was going to run the mile, but since we were over an hour late to feild day, i missed it. so, we sat in the hot hot hot sun for 3 or 4 hours. after we all had hideous sunburns on the half of our bodies that were facing the sun, we strolled back to the middle school. we sat in homeroom for a little over an hour eating parfays and getting our homeroom-mates to sign our year books. then we headed outside to get the rest of the school to sign them to see some examples of what people said, go to "burn baby burn" at the blog http://www.sunshinemaniac.blogspot.com/



on saturday, connor and tanners team lost 5-2. hard loss. tanner, jakari, and brandon were all at the point of tears, or crying. that other team was nasty! poor brandon, they specifically called him names extremely loudly. hes a tough ked, he ignored it for a while, but hes only 8.....



we were going to go to Dustins game. it was Farragut against some little school they had beaten 4-0 in the regular season. in the tournament though, we won in overtime.



my game was played against jon greene's team, who we beat either 3 or 4 to 0. there is some controversy. we (i) didnt play a fantastic game, but some of it, like people missing shots of my assists, wasnt my fault. i just hope i get my shot back before May 27, the first FHS soccer scrimmage.



more detail about the game, Jordan had two great goals, an d Kit had a marvelous one. jordans came from her just dribbling around a few people and getting off a shot, or her getting it out of traffic and nailing it in the opposite corner. Kits came as a midfeilder. she was so far out, no one even realized it was a shot until it was in the goal. we all assumed it was a breakaway cross! also, i thought Abbey had a goal, off a cross by yours truely, but i cant really remember. i was in the zone. i have heard different stories on it.

soccer

hard loss today. we played Paredes team, which has maraya futcher, jordan butler, chealsey beifelt, sarah gaurd, and alyssa far. they had 13 players and played with 11, like normal. we had 9. we only lost 2-1, but we should have won. i had 2 crosses that could have been converted, as did others. i played terribly, missing at least 2, maybe 3 good shots. i did make our only goal of the game in the middle of the second half. Kendall Bard set me up with a beautiful lead through pass. i only had to beat 1 or two ladies and the keeper.

of course, i play badly when i play people i know! however, Jordan Butler did a great job for them in goal, and i was impressed with Maraya! that gurl can play when she gets down to it, and she hit me pretty good a few times, not at all like her! :-) on our side, Allie Davis rocked it for us! that gurl is amazing, stepping up for us like that! Jordan Keane was our stud defender with Kit gone, and Hannah stepped up as a mid. i played left forward the entire game. they were a physical team, and i think we are all gonna have a few bruises. they had a good win, but i cant help but think if we had Kit, Courtney, Kristen, and Lauren, or even just 2 guest players to give us 11..... it would have been different. Oh well!

crazyness

lately has been pretty crazy for me. it is the end of the school year, but i cant really slaow down yet. i still have that huge C-SPAN paper (mines 16 pages) a geology paper in science, an EOC is science, Algebra stuff, Civil War test in social studies..... i am kinda just done with school.

i also have soccer. i am hoping to make JV at Farragut next year, which could be difficult. i am trying to get in shape for the dreaded 6 mile race before tryouts, get my speed up, better my ball handling and touches, play on my team that i am on now, and build muscle. that is something Coach Lindsey (FHS Varsity coach) always stressed to me. he says that incoming Freshman will be undersized, and other players we will compete against will out muscle us. he wants us to be able to be strong enough to hold our own and not get pushed around like dolls on the field. harder than it sounds!

Rain

on monday we had a make up game schudualed at the pellissippi fields. if you are knew to the world of soccer amke up games in our league, they are not cancelled. it is a very rare occasion. so, big suprise, come 5:45 we were on the feild for our game, even though the other team had yet to show up. they were not from around here, obviously! so, while we waited for about an hour for them to show up, we engaged ourselves in many safe, parentally approved activities.

these activities include.... wrestling/running through/making a slip a slip and slide out of the "river" as we called it. it was a river all around the feild, about knee deep of mud and water. you know, in the ravine between all the feilds to keep them seperated. it was not pretty.

while it was pouring, we also simply laid on our backs in the 3-4 inch puddles that consumed over half of the feilds getting mud on our previously bright white unifors, and getting wet.

we also had numerous mud fights. this is both throwing, as well as wiping mud on people. caution: if someone slaps mud of you, specifically your neck and calves and sometines back (target areas) it can be very painful.

the last thing we did was we scrimmaged ourselves. we would put mud on our arms, and when shoulder to shoulder with someone, we would wipe it all over them. or, just push them in the river and take off downfeild. whichever was easier.

dont we sound like a mature team? hey, you gotta admit, there is no way you can say we dont have good team chemistry and bonding!

so, after that we had the actual game, and i got a ride home with Beckers. as we walked up, her mom handed me a plastic bag thing that was cut open, the kind the dry cleaners give you with your clothes, and a wrapped up and hopped in. by the time i got home, the Gibsons, Jacksons, and Greskevitches (sp?) were all in my basement playing games with the rest of my family. i warily creeped down there to say i was home and getting in the shower (i was very late because of that other team) i scampered back upstaris amongst many laughs. but then again, surely they were imagined! why would they laugh at me????!!!!

Patrick

wow. today after church, i went to my Grandparents house, and my uncle Cameron, and cousins Nathaniel and Olivia were there. we hung out and threw football mostly... and almost broke a TV.... but thats beside the point. next, we went to Beckers for cookies. WOW! not only were there endless delicious cookies, a wrestling match between Luke Rainey (age 8) and Dustin Rainey (age 15, almost 16) but Patrick had his new guitar. and man, can that dude play. he played for at least 2 hours straight, all from memory, with singing, never repeating a song. if he hears a song, he can play it. and he hasnt even played for 2 years yet. sometime, i will get a video of him for you guys, you cannot imagine his awsome pure ability. i could just sit and watch him for hours! and thats pretty much what i did.....

soccer

boys game cancelled, my game cancelled. sunday game cancelled, but i wouldnt be in that anyway. soccer blues. instead, i am going to a movie with carter and jared. blog about it later.

cool pictures

this is scott rainey, who lost his middle finger quite a while ago. and now hes pretending to lose it again.

why do guys find pleasure in pretending to seriously damage their friends? i will never know. this is Trey, my Dad, Ty, and Dustin all pretending to kick each other.

above on the left would be connor and tanner lightsaber fighting with who knows what in a tide pool

and of coarse, we have connor executing the perfect dive... off the side of the pool... and hitting his stomach so hard.... poor guy.... but he got 4th out of 5, or something like that, which is not last! he is swimming against his buddy josh ebbert, and 2 or 3 other kids from other teams... you can see one of them...

beach

okay, so one of my favorite things to do is go to the beach woth the Beckers, Meeks, and Raineys. we always get a huge house (but it seems small with so many people!) that is right on the beach, and has a pool. well, when i say always i mean the twice that we have done it!it is tons of fun though, because Hannah, Katy, Broooke, Lauren, and i all shre a room downstairs with a mini fridge and microwave! plus, there are Tyler, Trey, Dustin, Patrick, Andrew, and Cristopher all in another room near us! needless to say, we reswulted to after midnight pranks a few times.... but hey, its all fun and games!

another fun tradition we have is to go to the family owned beach house that we have in oak Island, sometimes bringing people along. we have gone with raineys.... i think twice, and extended family a few times, on both sides. we have also gone alone, with tyler rainey, and with the whites .... i think that covers most peole recent.

so, last time we went with the Raineys, Dustin caught a gator! there is a little swampy area between our house and the beach, which there is a bridge over. cross the bridge and you are on sand. well, he had other ideas. he got some fish heads, a net on a 30-40 foot rope, and a big pole, and i think a baby shark of two to use as bait. we caught many snaping turtles, and an allligator! it wasnt big, probably just 3, maybe three and a half feet.... but it was cool!

we (more like he) tried to get it to fit in this big plastic box that we found, but the lid wouldnt fit on it. so, he just put the net on top, and called everyone down to see it. not the best idea. it go out, right when the moms and little kids came to see it! it was so funny, a bunch of peopleall running around and sceaming, while dustin, ty, and there dad desperatly tried to keep it in there! needless to say, it was a one hit wonder. after that, it was kicked off the edge of the bridge by yours truelly. but thats just because we didnt want it to fall so far as a baby, and it wouldnt let go of the net, so we igured it could go off its own accord. it didnt. it got a little too close for comfort for me, so i let it go flying!

i wish i could claim credit for this amazing adventure, but i cannot. he did it all. i tried.... but i just couldnt get that gator to go in the net! but i did catch a turtle or two, and helped get one that was so huge! i thought it was a sea turtle, it must have been 3 or 4 feet around! but sadly, we couldnt lift it up to the bridge. :-(

p.s pictures were taken june or july of 2007. they are of... A. connor holding a shark.

B. Dustin jumping over Tyler and Trey. and C. Sydney and Austin Rainey jumping over the edge of the hot tub. which is filled with about 15 people.

our friday game

earlier today, our team had a game out at Oak Ridge. After successfully finding the field, we had team warm-ups and stretching, and got checked out by the refs. after the customary shingaurd/earring check, we were suprised to here him announce that no braclets were allowed.... including hair bands, string things, and the braclet i got at Niagra Falls! (green and light green) well, you cannot take those things off, so i found someone with shingaurd tape, and threw some over it. that way, it was taped to my wrist.... no ones finger coulda gotten in that thing to get broken if they had tried!

the rain started. of coarse! for the first few minutes of the game, it was raining pretty hard, but not pouring. that was all we needed, i got a pass in the corner around the 18 yard line, my hotspot. i had a shot that hit the upper cross bar at an angle so that it didnt go in, but it bounced right in front of the goal. thankfully, a defender on the other team go frantic in her attempts to clear it, and ended up handballing it. our right forward, Lauren, converted with ease. after that, it started raining pretty hard. lots of families retreated to cars, and watched in safty while we continued to play. we got another goal scored about 15 minutes into the first, by Lizzy Keane, the center-mid. very nice shot. now, it was getting frantic. both sides were resulting to even more physical play than usual, with lots of back pushing, shirt tugging, ankle kicking soccery goodness. unfortunatly, the ball rolled soooooo fast across that flat wet grass that we had trouble keeping up! you know how it is.... you feel weighed down by all the rain thats all over you, youre sliping and sliding, and your being pushed..... it makes for slow movement.

the game didnt last long though. no more than 20 minutes into it, we had to break for lightning, and after a while it was still lightning and thundering, so the ref called it off. :-( those kinds of games are my favorites.... nothing fancy, just plain, physical soccer.

so, after the game, the whole family, except trey, went to panaras to eat. i must have been quite a sight, sweaty, soaked, shivering, smelly, and in a white jersey with my socks, shingaurds, and cleats all still on! (it was not raining that hard back in turkey creek)

well, ive got the boys game tommorow at 9:30 *sigh* i guess i will be up early, plus my game tomorrow at 12, so i guess i should stop dwelling in the past on this game and get ready for my next one! blog tomorow about it!

25 things

28 things you have been DYING to know about me

1. i play the guitar.... i wish i could say well, but....

2. i play the piano, and i am decent

3. I LOVE SOCCER!

4. i have triplets for siblings, and my mom is the 2nd oldest of 6. huge family and i love every one of them

5. i have a fear of tweezers, dont ask me why. if i need a splinter out, i have been known to use needles over tweezers.

6. i make lists. it is my way of keeping organized.

7. i have a fear of shots. im better with them than tweezers though.... eyebrows are a party for me!

8. i like gummies more than chocolate

9. i wish i could mow our lawn, but i cant. we have "people" for that

10. i could eat all day

11. i hate cleaning, yardwork is fine

12. i cannot do anything cool with my tongue. :-(

13. i like all fruits and veggies that i have ever tried.... i think...

14. i love cooking, but im never home when it is appropriate to cook!

15. i am not patient. especially with teaching sports skills. but thats just with the triplets!

16. i love all kids! well.... almost all.... hahaha just kidding trips

17. i cannot stand seafood. and lots of other meats.

18. i just am not into all the go green stuff. but i do recycle! sometimes....

19. i really stink at algebra

20. i am the weirdest sleeper ever. the cover are all in a ball, pillows across room, hair a mess.... its cause i toss and turn so much!

21. although i may be a weird sleeper, i am a very light one... sometimes. i can handle snoring from good friends, and anyone while camping. not family.

22. before we moved, i shared a room with my sister, at the time a baby, for a few months or so. i slept in the hall every night because her snoring woke me up.

23. my grammy wrote a book about us which i LOVE!

24. i love swinging, and jumping on trampolines, and sitting on docks, and boating, and just being outside!

25. i still havent typed my whole 5 page C-SPAN paper, because im less than half way there and its already 9 pages. what to do?

26. some teachers really irk me. some dont.

27. i have a ghost named Homer that is responsible for all my mistakes. Hannah Beckers is walter. read earlier post for more info

28. i love going to the beach in isle of palms with family friends.

Today..... boring!

today i had a wonderfully average day! i came home from school, ate, and played some piano. i think i drive my family crazy, all i play is coldplay stuff! then, i headed out for soccer with my buddy walter (hannah becker). Kit was......... Kit. ya just gotta know the gurl; shes insane. in true Kit nature, she brough 4 water bottles, 3 of which ended up spit, thrown, or dumped all over me. all we did was scrimage, and i played left mid the whole time, with 3 goals, and an assist to Kit. then, i went home, ate more (grilled chicken, veggies and rice were dinner) and we spent some time as a family. we played a bit of bball on our BRAND NEW goal which i love! mostly we just showed off our dunks. and, trey tried to teach me how to do a 180 off the backboard. not very successful, but we didnt really persist. i tried playing some soccer with tanner while sydney climbed "the tree". folks, dont try this at home. he hit me instead of the ball too many times to count in the short 4 minutes that he played before he was too tired to continue his fanatics.

btw, for those of you informed about homer, walter is hannahs form of him. they are both used fairly often in soccer scrimmages, sadly enough! if you dont know about homer, he is my ghost. and boy is he bad! he forgets to do chores, spills things, makes sloppy passes, bad shots, and taps people on the shoulder. what a goober! but, if anyone else tries to use him, he has a soccer playing cousin in Brazil that he often visits (ring a bell cally? i did NOT copy your idea if thats what your thinking!)

Last year for my older brother, treys, eagle scout project, we had a hoops for hope. this consisted of the entire UT mens and womens basketball teams meeting at farragut high school and having a tournament for downsyndromes children. they reffed and coached, as well as just talked to the kids and others who came to watch. in all, we made a little aver 5,000 dollars for the downsyndrome awarness group. we also decided to make this an annual thing since it was such a large success! the pictures are of me and cait macmahan (my favorite player) a huge shoe, something like a size 18 in mens, and some lady vols with a downs syndrome girl in the lower age group. this was the coolest experiance ever, to see the players grow, as well as the joy that those kids and there families had in having such an opportunity.